Saturday, May 31, 2014

Saturday Afternoon Downtown

Downtown Asheville on the last afternoon in May-- clouds looming in the east, but meanwhile fierce spring sun baking the sidewalks underfoot; crowds meandering to a beer festival in Pack Square where lots of live music is also happening; Jacob and I heading over to Eagle Street to find some good images at a construction site that F and I saw this week. Here's a sketch of J peering through a slim gap between the chain-link construction fence and the brick wall of the adjacent building. He's standing behind (and almost inside of) a potted palm that's been dragged there to form a kind of barricade between the construction site and the bar next door.

I found a spot where someone had removed the tarp that was blocking the view through most of the fence while J took off around the corner to try to find a better view. I love the way this came out! The workers have torn down several early 20th century brick buildings to make way for a new market building, but happily they've left some of the original walls standing. I assume these will be incorporated into the new structure. Drawing this felt like drawing rooflines outside our apartment window in Barcelona. An interesting touch was that a bagpipe was playing in the background while I was drawing, probably connected to the Highland Brewing booth at the beer fest. We aren't Beer City for nothing!

After a while I texted J and we met up around the corner. He had climbed a fire escape and looked down and found what looked like an interesting photography gallery (Castell Photography); so we went to take a closer look. Inside, along with the really good exhibition, there were old cameras and photography things. I sketched this large format wooden camera while J tried out a stereopticon, We enjoyed the exhibit and recommend this gallery. Be sure to check out Jacob's blog to see his images from today.

About Me

Real Life Journals is about designing, building, and using journals that help keep your sometimes wobbly little boat afloat. I see this blog as a chance to expand on, question, and make corrections to my recent book of the same title.